What is Queer Theory?

The articles by Roderick Ferguson (2004) in his book literally highlights the regulation that established sociological schools of thought impose upon the ‘queer people of color,’ or anyone who is different in terms of sexual orientation and non-white. In the very early part of the book, Ferguson depicts the imagery of a black drag-queen prostitute from Marlon Riggs’ ‘Tongues Untied.’ He goes on to describe the way capitalism, in general, and the American system in particular has conveniently excluded many like her – people of alternative sexual preferences with both African American culture and Leftist Liberal thought rooted in the heterogeneity. (Ferguson, 2004, p. 3). It is at this point that through the work of Chandan Reddy, Ferguson reminds the reader that the core of Leftist-Liberal Marxist thought revolves around the abolishment of race, gender and sexuality.

This approach to queer subtext has been has always been a part of Western media as we as we explored in the film “The Celluloid Closet” (1995). Queer representation for many years was an continuous uncategorized personification that was vaguely acknowledged but to those who understood the subtext, it became an undercurrent of complex coded information that eventually paved the way for the integration of queer identification within the hetero film storylines. Doty speaks about this and also mentions that at some point in time representation of queer culture and sexuality

The present essay aims to analyse and discuss how social actions related to gender and sexuality have given rise to social change. Particular attention will be given to how views and opinions on gender and sexuality have positively evolved throughout the years as a result of decades of social activism led by the members and allies of the LGBT community. In order to do so, the current paper will firstly provide a concise account of how gender and sexuality were seen in the former times, which will be then compared to more current perspectives. Secondly, the paper will present a brief overview of the history of the LGBT movement, and highlight its main milestones. Significant emphasis will be given to how these salient occurrences have significantly affected today’s perception and attitudes towards the LGBT community in the majority of the world countries. In conclusion, the current essay will introduce and explore the recent ongoing activism that has been occurring globally within the LGBT community.

The topic of sexual orientation is both sensitive and controversial. This is evident in events, such as the Pride Parade, and also in media, where authoritative figures preach against it and speak of its “sinful nature” (Emmanuele, Blanchard, Camperio-Ciani, & Bancroft, 2010). Sexual orientation exists in various forms, it differs in the way it is viewed by different cultures, and researchers propose different perspectives to explain the emergence of an individual 's sexual orientation. In the discourse of sexual orientation,

It is hard to challenge what is seemingly normalized in society. Especially when looking into the realm of gender and sexuality, the male and female gender accompanied by heterosexuality is often just accepted and deemed as a social norm. Social institutions such as marriage, health-care laws, and the economic system benefit those who act within the heteronormative behaviors and appropriate gender expression. The gender binary, though, is far from accurate when assuming personal identity. If someone follows the social script of the femininity, he or she is expected to be female and possess female anatomy. The same goes for men: if he or she expresses masculinity he or she is expected to be male with male anatomy. Anything outside of this expectation is deemed socially unacceptable and subject to backlash. With the strong ties Western society has to the gender binary and appropriate gender roles, it is impossible to picture anything else. The Fa’fafine in Samoa, however, present a great challenge to the norms instilled in society.

The following thesis will lay out the progression in the LGBTQIA movement along with the deficits that these individuals have encountered throughout history. An interdisciplinary perspective through historical,

Profane and shocking word choice helps drive Wittman’s confrontational and liberationist stance on LGBT+ issues. As authors Madeline Davis and Elizabeth Kennedy support in “Oral History and the Study of Sexuality in the Lesbian Community,” American queer rights movements became more critical and liberationist in the 70s (426). Wittman’s piece provides clear evidence of this tone change. By describing topics such as “exclusive heterosexuality” and interactions between males and females as “fucked up,” Wittman unabashedly confronts heteronormative culture and endorses queer peoples’ liberation from

Queer anthropology is often identified under cultural anthropology and combined with studies like gender studies. It focuses on the intersectionality of human life with various identities. Queer anthropologists ask questions around queer theory and how the social constructs of identity can be challenged to envelop a new wave of thinking. Looking back on historical trends like Stonewall, researchers can see how progressive – or not- society has become in teaching history beyond the normative. They can observe how queer history is often blocked out of education in favor of the

There seems to be a prevalent belief among queer theorists that there exists an archetype of the “ideal queer.” This person is subversive in everything that they do, and disrupts norms in all ways. Obviously, this ideal is different from dominant society’s view of the ideal queer - a person who keeps their identity to themself, is not “outwardly queer,” holds some type of stable corporate job, is “just like the rest of us” in all other aspects of being, and is decidedly non-radical. Of course, neither of these ideals are representative of the reality of LGBT individuals. Gender and sexual expression is infinitely varied, and cannot be boxed into categories which are palatable to one group or another. LGBT individuals who chose to marry or

The documentary explored the community of transgender and gays and really connected with the matrix of domination. Matrix of domination analyzes race, class, and gender as different but interrelated axes of social structure. In the documentary, society perpetuates marked and unmarked categories of sexual orientation. Marked and unmarked categories connect to power as it is distributed off of various reasons, some identified and some unidentified. The drag queens, gays, and transgender suffer because of these often unspoken social norms. As these sexual orientations are not normal in society, society might call these people “queer.” In the article “Queer” from Keywords for American Cultural Studies, the term queer is used “interchangeably with the terms “gay” and “lesbian” or occasionally “transgender” and “bisexual.” (Somerville 2007) This shows that society uses a term that refers to a range of sexual identities that are not straight and not normal. Also, from the writing “Critically Queer” by Judith Butler, he said that the word "queering" “persists as a defining moment of performativity.” (Butler 1993) The word performativity means the enactment of the spoken word historically of force and consolidation, so this emphasizes how the term “queer” is a performative that has one domain in which power acts as

While it was barely a kernel of activism against the immense backdrop of advocacy during the 1960’s and 70’s, the gay liberation movement was one of the most important challenges to the hierarchal structures of accepted moral and scientific thought. Functioning as a minor footnote within the context of a substantial political arena comprised of the issues of war, race and a raging women’s liberation movement, gay liberation in the late twentieth century still sought to impress upon the marginalizing and sectarian constructions that subjugated gays to an imposed peripheral existence of personal and public abhorrence. The Stonewall Riot of 1969 signaled the start of a substantial social movement, the dissemination of which would permeate the gay community and call into action an assault on the mechanisms of social order, public legislation and cultural dispositions that sustained a framework of persecution against homosexual men and women. The efforts of gay liberation activists during the sexual revolution of the late twentieth century made possible the near expulsion of constraints on sexual expression and gave way to a new rhetoric of pride and affirmation.

Thirdly, queers challenge the categories as well as binaries of sexual and gender by questioning the categories and binaries’ reasonability. Queer theorists concern about how and why the categories of gender and sexuality are shaped, thinking the main reason is to better control people so as to achieve political goals. As de Lauretis (1991) stated, the existing strategies of homosexual, which is created based on the existing categories of gender and sexuality, is to ensure the “ center” integrated. Moreover, they reject and question the usefulness of categories. According to

Queer theory questions creations of normal and divergent, insider, and outsider.2 Queer theorists analyse a situation or a text to determine the relationship between sexuality, power and gender. Queer theory challenges basic tropes used to organize our society and our language: even words are gendered, and through that gendering an elliptical view of the hierarchy of society, and presumption of what is male and what is female, shines through. Queer theory rejects such binary distinctions as arbitrarily determined and defined by those with social power. It works to deconstruct these binaries, particularly the homosexual/heterosexual binary.4

In Foucault and Queer Theory Spargo defines queer theory as a nebulous group of cultural criticism and analysis of social power structures relating to sexuality . It is these power structures and aspects of culture that are responsible for the discourse that creates and informs ones understanding of gender, race, and sexuality. However these aspects of identity do not exist separately from one another, but are constructed in tandem throughout history. These layers of identity inform each other in a way that is difficult if not impossible to separate. They do not act independently with an additive effect but intersect constructing their own unique set of experiences and perspectives. In this paper I will be exploring queer theory

Gender and sexual orientation is a topic that has been and still today is not talked about in such a way it should be because of how society has chosen to structure and control it. Social stratification is a system in which groups of people are divided up into layers according to their relative privileges (power, property, and prestige). It’s a way of ranking large groups of people into a hierarchy according to their relative privileges (Vela-McConnell 2016). People, who deviate from the norm of the “accepted” gender and sexual orientation that society has placed upon us, are stratified below the norm of a dominating binary gender and sexual orientation. People who are queer face the struggle of mistreatment and an unaccepting society that has been socialized to see and act on gender and sexual orientation to being a dualistic system.